


Rosie

by orphan_account



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Cats, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, Tony Feels, seriously, sort of, they are the best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-19 22:10:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1485925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a reason Tony Stark freaks out when he sees the black Maine Coon in the common room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rosie

**Author's Note:**

> Hello. I've been feeling moody and upset lately and all I can do is hug my cat closely to me. Best comforting pillows ever. My heart hurt writing this. I won't spoil more so there's pictures and further notes below. Hope you enjoy
> 
> Also, wow this really got away from me. Longest piece yet. Of course it's about cats.

He found her when he was 8. She'd been skinny and dirty and scared but that hadn't stopped him from moving forward and holding her close even as he claws dug deep into his stomach and shoulder. She'd calmed down as he began walking back towards the house and he'd whispered soft nothings into her fur asking her to keep it down lest Howard or Maria saw her.

When he'd arrived at his room he'd softly closed the door and then he sat down on his floor and loosened his grip. Surprisingly, she'd only shifted to settle in a better position on his lap and then settled down and snuggled into him. He'd smiled and felt warmth spread through his heart. She was a soft and comfortable weight on his thighs and stomach and he'd enjoyed moving his fingers through her light gray hair even though it was tangled and gritty for the most part.

He'd let her rest for a while and then he'd heard Maria call out for dinner and he'd softly patted her head and told her to not worry, he'd be back. She'd simply opened her big green eyes a bit and allowed him to settle her on his pillows. During dinner he'd hidden a dinner roll and a chunk of meat in his pocket.

She'd meowed at him when he walked back into the room and he quickly shushed her while he fed her bread and meat in small chunks. She'd purred and happily followed him around hoping for more. He'd grabbed a spare cup laying around his room, rinsed it, and then filled it with water from the tap. He'd watched her as her pink tongue darted out to chug it down.

That night she'd slept on his chest and he had been lulled to sleep with her soft purring.

In the morning he realized that she still didn't have a name and so he made it his task for the rest of the name. She'd gone through Buttercup, Lily, Roxy, Evie, and others before he reached the perfect name while he softly massaged some soap into her fur. She hadn't liked it at first but as he steadily held her under the water and rubbed her paws and belly she'd settled. He realized then that the soap smelled like roses and he'd decided that her name would be Rosie.

Rosie soon became Tony's best friend. His hidden companion who would wait for him until he came back from school and who he fed food he snuck from the kitchen. She came to enjoy jumping into the shower with him and stealing half of his pillow at night or simply settling half on his chest and half on his face.

After Howard had yelled at him again for accidentally dropping something in the lab, Rosie had been there when he'd burst into his room in tears and she'd simply walked to him, pawed at his feet until he picked her up and then purred and nuzzled him until all he could do was smile into her fur and give her the attention she demanded.

Rosie was his rock and he loved her more than anything.

Jarvis had found out a year later and Tony had sobbed at his feet begging him not to tell his parents because he knew, _knew_ , they'd take her away. Jarvis had plainly looked down at him, demanded he get up, and then went on to reassure him that Rosie would be their little secret from now on. The next week Jarvis had snuck in a cat post to hide in his closet and a few new toys for her. And if Jarvis hung out in Tony's room a lot more from then on well, no one noticed.

Tony grew up and as he did Rosie became older. Of course Tony should have realized that he couldn't keep her hidden forever. When he was packing for MIT he accidentally left the door cracked. Rosie of course, was curious, and walked out. Tony hadn't noticed until he heard a startled yelp from his father and all of a sudden he heard a distinct and alarmed meow. He rushed out the door and found a red-faced Howard Stark roughly holding Rosie by the small amount of scruff on her neck.

"What in the hell is this thing?!" he'd demanded and then Maria and Jarvis had come running over. Jarvis had gone white faced and Maria simply froze and looked between Tony and him.

"That's Rosie. She's mine" he muttered quietly and then looked down at his feet.

"Since when." Howard asked

"Six years ago." Maria let out a startled gasp and Howard had stomped forward still holding Rosie and casually slapped him. Tony held his cheek, astonished and then Howard had roughly thrown Rosie on the floor. She ran back into his room.

"That thing will be out of the house by today. Understood?" he said stoically

"She's coming to MIT with me dad" Tony said only to have an angrier Howard in his face.

"MIT will not accept rats on their campus. No." he said. Tony started crying and begged him not to make him throw her out. Howard simply shook his head no each time until Jarvis spoke up.

"Sir, if I may, I have a niece that would gladly take the feline." he said and Tony would have gone and hugged the man had he not been kept in place by his father's glare.

"Whatever, as long as that animal is no longer here or at MIT". He stomped off afterward.

Jarvis had come to apologize him before he left while Tony was forced to say goodbye to Rosie. She obviously could tell something was wrong as she tried to cling to his shoulders as he climbed into the limousine. Jarvis had to pry her off and hold her tightly in his arms. He'd pet her head and kissed her fur promising to visit during the break.

Of course she died a week later.

Tony had sobbed and so had Jarvis. He could remember her sad, green eyes a week ago and Howard at least let him bury her small corpse in the backyard. Maria had helped him plant a rose bush on top of the small mound and of course a stunning and large collection of pink roses had bloomed a short while later.

Sometimes, Tony forgot when he had a particularly bad day and needed comfort, and he'd blindly look around for Rosie only to remember that she was gone and then he'd feel worse and settle on his bed in fetal position wishing he had his grey haired companion again.

Unsurprisingly, Tony turned to the next best thing for comfort and then he was famous for late night partying and drunken shenanigans. He thought about getting another cat but couldn't. Rosie had been special and his. Of course, he donated to cat shelters whenever he could (whenever he was sober enough) but he didn't have the energy to go and find another cat to take in.

He had even less energy and time when his parents died.

He never forgot about Rosie and he certainly never got over her which is why he felt his heart settle into his throat when he walked into the Avenger's Tower common room to find everyone circled around, cooing at a black maine coon. He'd looked at the large cat and he'd only seen Rosie's long grey fur and he'd felt tears well up in his eyes.

His team hadn't seen anything but he saw that Natasha became aware of his presence. He panicked when he realized that tears were about to roll onto his cheeks and he quickly pressed his thumbs into the corner of his eyes to try and center himself. Of course this is when everyone looked up to see an apparently angry Tony Stark.

"Oh, you can't possibly hate cats Stark" Clint said and anger had surged through him.

"What." he said briskly and coldly.

"Cats. You can't hate them. Or actually, that wouldn't really surprise me. You're weird and pissy about everything. Why not cats? What, want us to kick her out? Well, tell Thor here 'cause he's the one who brought her in" he said and everyone had turned expectantly to Thor.

"Thor, why did you bring a cat into the tower?" he said irritably and Thor had quickly adopted a thunderous look.

"Be careful what you say Man of Iron. I will not allow you to refuse this fair and gentle creature entrance into our tower" he said and Tony felt hurt. Of course he wasn't going to kick the cat out. He just couldn't deal with her so suddenly. It'd been years since he'd been so near to a cat again and seen one with the same color eyes as Rosie had had.

"No of course not I just–" he began only to have Steve cut in.

"Come on Tony. Don't ruin this for the rest of us. Look at her. Come one over, just pet her!" Steve picked up the cat, apparently a girl, and stood up to walk towards him.

"No, Steve, please. Don't." Steve kept walking and something clawed against his chest. He couldn't. Not right now. All he saw was Rosie and all he hear where her soft meows and her rumbling purrs and all of a sudden he could smell her distinct and soft smell and when he felt fur against the bottom of his chin as Steve held her forward and towards him he suddenly couldn't breathe and he needed to get away.

So he shoved.

Not expecting the violent lash out, Steve stumbled back and the cat freaked and clawed at his arms, chest, and face until he let her go in shock. Everyone quickly stood up at the sudden chaos and the cat ran to hide under the couch. All Tony could do was stand stock still, breathing harshly and looking down at a wide-eyed Steve Rogers on his ass on the floor.

 _Oh, fuck_ , Tony thought as everyones frightened looks quickly shifted to angry ones. Thor stomped forwards and loomed over him red-faced while Bruce simply walked away a little green around the edges. Clint glared while helping Steve stand and Natasha simply looked at him contemplatively.

"I will not stand for this behavior Anthony. You may give us a home to stay in but do not doubt that I will not leave if you continue down this path. I thought you had changed." Thor was right in front of him and Tony had to fight everything within him to stand his ground. "You will stop this attitude immediately for I will not allow you to harm that animal any further, understood?" Thor 'lightly' shoved him backwards and Tony crumpled. He stumbled backwards and the back of his knees hit the armchair behind him. He slid down and sat on the floor while softly hiccuping. No one seemed to care as they all walked away but not before they each tried to coax the cat out one last time. In the end they couldn't and with one final hurt, disappointed, and angry look, they walked away.

When they were gone Tony allowed himself to break down. Wracking sobs shook his body and JARVIS attempted to call out to him but he didn't listen. He was back to the moments when Howard had been disappointed and to the moment when he realized that Rosie was gone. It was just one big ball of hurt and Tony couldn't get out.

Hours passed and it was fully dark outside when two green orbs suddenly ducked out from under the couch. The small black cat locked eyes with his and the both stared at each other for a bit. Tony sniffled a bit as his heart hurt again and then the cat walked towards him. Tony had tried to scoot back but he was stopped by the chair and then he had a heavy and very furry mass on his lap. He'd forgotten how warm cats were and how good it felt to have a small little life form like a cat so close to him.

He smiled when the cat began kneading his thighs and had giggled when she'd circled to try and find a more comfortable position, effectively swatting him in the face with her large and very furry tail. She'd finally plopped down for good, sighed, and then gone off to sleep.

Apparently he'd forgotten how little they cared about where they were as long as it was soft and warm.

He'd nodded off still softly crying and smiling. It was a horrible juxtaposition.

He woke up when the sky was barely lighting up and he found Natasha sitting across from him staring at him.

He'd let out a very manly yelp and tried to stand up only to stop when he realized that the maine coon was still in his lap.

"Um, hi?" he said roughly with sleep in his voice.

Natasha reached forward and softly squeezed the cat's stomach.

"Why did you react like that last night?" she asked simply and Tony immediately felt mortified again as he remembered everything he'd done. He'd really screwed up this time.

"Don't you know Romanoff? I hate cats!" he said irritably and Natasha simply raised an eyebrow. He caved.

"I-I didn't mean to. But, you know that already right? You saw that I wasn't really angry. I was just-I panicked. I don't really, um, deal with cats well. Not-not anymore." he said in a whisper while absently burying his fingers in the dark and thick fur underneath him.

"Yes, I saw that. Why?" she asked him softly.

"I had a cat. Years ago." He smiled softly at the memories and continued in a trembling voice. "Her name was Rosie. She was a domestic longhair, grey, and with the same piercing green eyes as this one." He squeezed the cat. "What's this girl's name anyways?" he asked

"We didn't get to name her. Not yet but continue" she responded.

"Oh, okay. Anyways, I had her for years. Eight. She was perfect. Loved to take showers with me, ate all of my leftovers, played with the projects I snuck into my room. That's why I didn't have an effective robot until I was ten. She always chewed the wires. Jarvis, the original, found out but he got her toys and a scratch post. He loved her, but not as much as me. When I headed off to MIT she got out. Stupid, curious cat. Howard found her and well, you know how he was. He was pissed. I almost had to kick her to the curb but Jarvis promised to take her to his niece. It was fine. But she was distraught. She meowed at me as I drove away and then she died while I was at MIT a week later. All I can remember now are those eyes. Those sad, sad eyes. Never got a pet after. She's still buried at the mansion, right underneath the beautiful, pink rosebush." When he was done, he was crying again and to his surprise so was Natasha. Not overtly but her eyes shined and soft tears rolled down her cheeks. The cat meowed up at him breaking their trance and he laughed. She was pawing at his legs and it seemed she was hungry. "Alright girl, let's find you some food." Natasha quickly wiped her eyes and stood with him. He struggled to get feeling back in his legs while the cat snaked around his legs impatiently. "Tash, get a bowl with water will you? She needs water."

She nodded and said, "We got her some cat food last night. It's on the counter."

He let out a horrified noise when he saw cans of Natural Balance wet cat food stacked on the counter. "What is this?!" he opened one up and gagged at the look and smell. "This will do for now but no cat deserves this crap. JARVIS order the best cat food you can find and from now on order some extra meat whenever we order it. Cats can eat raw meat as long as it's quality meat and fresh so don't look at me like that, it's fine." He told Natasha as he quickly poured the food into an empty bowl. He settled it on the floor next to the bowl of water. The cat, and they really needed to choose a name soon, he thought, quickly gobbled it up. He smiled down at it and when he looked up he found a room full of Avengers. Bruce looked upset and Thor looked guilty while Steve looked like a kicked puppy and Clint looked chagrined. He realized that they must have heard everything.

"Well, fuck." he said and turned away back into the kitchen to get coffee. They all left him alone for a while but he couldn't hide in the kitchen forever. When he walked back into the common room he found them all waiting for him, talking quietly. They all immediately stopped when they saw him. "No, by all means, continue talking about me." he said, annoyed.

"We're sorry." blurted out Steve. "We-we didn't know. I'm sorry for trying to make you hold her"

"You didn't know Steve. It's okay" Tony said, slightly less touchy.

"No, Man of Iron. I am deeply ashamed for the way I treated you. I should know by now that individuals act a certain way for a reason. It appears that I still have much to learn for I seem to still act without thinking." Thor said and that statement alone brought a wave of new feelings surging over Tony. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and took another sip of his coffee.

"Thor, everyone, it's okay. I swear. You didn't know and–I should have handled it better. It's been years. I should be able to deal with seeing a damn cat by now." he said offhandedly.

"But it's not Tony. We should now better by now. And it was completely reasonable for you to act the way you did. You lost a friend, harshly, that's enough to stick with someone. Doesn't matter how long ago it was. I'm sorry. You're my friend and I didn't stick around or try to figure out what was going on." Bruce spoke up from the corner of the room. Tony shuffled on his feet and nodded towards him. Bruce sent him a gooey smile.

"Thanks Brucie-bear" he said. "So, now that everyone's apologized and I've dealt with this girl here" he pointed to the Maine Coon now happily walking across his lap, "she needs a name."

"We thought you should name her. She clearly likes you a lot now and well-" Steve finished awkwardly and nervously wrung his hands together.

"Well, let's see here." he grabbed the cat and held her up eye level. "What's you name hun?" he asked her and she replied by meowing loudly. The rest of the team laughed.

"I think you'll be Raven" and with that the rest of the team reached out, fluffed her hair, and said 'Welcome Raven'.

**Author's Note:**

> Rosie is based on my own cat and I feel bad for putting Tony through this but, yup. This is my cat so this is what Rosie looked like: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=20jr1xy&s=8#.U1HjAeZdU4U and this is what I imagine Raven would look like but with greener eyes: http://dsawallpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/black-maine-coon-kittenpicture-of-little-stock-picture-at-featurepics-vwqyrhv7.jpg . Hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Also, just to make it clear. I have never fed my cats Natural Balance cat food and so I have no idea what it looks like, smells like, tastes like, whatever. I have nothing against it but when I looked for the cheapest and worst cat food I found that Natural Balance was listed so I chose that for this story. Just to clear things up in case anyone gets mad or something. Thank you!


End file.
